


Literally

by shieldings



Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series), Teen Titans - All Media Types
Genre: Again Very Silly, F/F, Kitten is Mean, Tara doesn't know anybody's names, Tara is an idiot, Very light femslash here mostly just crushing and hand holding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:27:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21838945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shieldings/pseuds/shieldings
Summary: Tara is an ordinary high school girl, and her new friend is a very dramatic goth.  After all, why else would she keep saying she's a demon?(From a suggestion by Sasam on the Raven/Terra discord!)
Relationships: Raven & Tara Markov, Raven/Tara Markov
Comments: 9
Kudos: 66





	Literally

**Author's Note:**

> Sasam suggested on the Raven/Terra discord, "AU idea where it's casual modern highschool AU, no capes or anything. Just normal life stuff. Except Raven is still a demon. some people have suspicions, other people just think she's really edgy"

She’s hanging out alone again. Most of the time, that girl is in a cluster of weirdos that Tara wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. But she sits alone at lunch, off at an empty table with a limp salad and a bottled water and a heavy book. It makes Tara sad, so she decides to interfere.

“Hey,” she says, sidling in nonchalantly. “I noticed you’re always alone.”

“I’m reading,” says the girl. Tara peeks over her shoulder, non-invasively, and sees that the text is written in strange, hieroglyphic-looking characters. Huh.

“So, what’s your name?” Tara asks.

“Raven,” the girl says, closing her book over her thumb (she’s wearing glossy black nail polish) to keep her place. “Don’t talk to me.”

“Okay, bye!” Tara walks off very coolly.

\--

“Hi, I noticed you were alone today,” Tara says, plopping herself down next to Raven. “What’s that book you’re reading?”

“It’s about a lot of things, but this chapter’s about interbreeding between demons and air spirits. It’s wrong. Demons can have physical form.” 

“Spooky,” Tara says, nodding. She only half-understands what Raven is talking about, but if she’s into that occult stuff, neat. That’s not a bad quirk to have. “So, do you like movies?”

“Usually not.”

“Hiking?”

“I prefer to stay indoors.”

“Fair, the weather sucks this time of year. Do you like bowling?”

“It just stresses me out,” Raven says. She’s starting to look exasperated.

“Cool, cool,” Tara says, standing to leave.

\--

“You’re usually sitting alone, too,” Raven says.

“That’s because I don’t _want_ to sit with any of these losers,” Tara says. She ignores the exciting fact that this means Raven has looked at her sitting alone.

“Maybe I don’t want to sit with anybody, either,” Raven says. 

“But you hang out with those hyper people all the time!”

“And you hang out with…” Raven looks away, suddenly embarrassed. “Sorry, you hang out with those kids from the theater club. “Jinx and… them.”

“I mean, they’re kind of bitchy, but sure,” Tara says. “I usually only hang out with really cool people. I just feel sorry for them, you know?”

“Right,” Raven says skeptically. “And you feel sorry for me.”

“Uh… I mean, I… Bye.” Tara stands and rapidly walks away.

\--

“I mean, I don’t judge people, but I’m right, right?” Kitten asks the girl next to her. Tara’s just finished smoking a cigarette in the bathroom, and is reapplying her lipstick.

“I mean, you’re not wrong,” says Kitten’s friend. “I bumped into her the other day, and when she looked at me her eyes were literally red.”

“I heard the walls start bleeding when she’s on her period,” Kitten says. Her friend snorts.

The girl snorts. “And she’s always feeding those crows.”

“Eww, the ones that are always by the dumpster?” Kitten squeals.

At this point, Tara feels obligated to speak up. She turns from her mirror and meets Kitten’s eye. “Your dad robbed a Safeway and when he got arrested he released a bunch of bugs into the cop car.”

She spins around before Kitten can say another word and walks primly out.

\--

The next day, she can’t find Raven. She looks at her usual table in the lunchroom, and she even tracks down the little clique of… somethings… that Raven hangs out with.

“I haven’t seen her today either,” says the one with the dark hair… Ric. Rickert?

“She seemed out of sorts yesterday,” says the one with the accent. Cora. 

“I’m kind of worried someone’s been picking on her,” says the jock from the wheelchair football team. Tara really can’t remember his name, but it has something to do with Frankenstein.

“I gave her a pencil case full of jello and she didn’t even say anything about it,” says Heathcliff, the one with the green hair.

“Thanks anyway,” Tara says, walking away as quickly as she can without seeming rude.

She finds Raven by the dumpster. She’s sitting on the ground, and has a book open in front of her. It’s a different one, with a heavy leather cover. She’s tossing soggy French fries at a small conglomeration of large black birds that’s gathered around her.

“Hey,” Tara says, stepping forward. The crows fly away just like that.

“Hello,” Raven says. “Feeling sorry for me again?”

“I wanted to see you. Are you okay?”

“Yes,” Raven says. “It’s just that my powers are unpredictable today, and I was afraid I’d hurt someone.”

“I punched my math teacher once,” Tara says sympathetically.

Raven sighs.

\--

“So, this whole dark aesthetic thing,” Tara says through a mouthful of salami. “Do you always do… that, with the black clothes and the spooky shit, or are you ever not goth?”

“About that,” Raven says.

“I kind of wanna dress you up is all,” Tara says. She scooches a little closer. “I don’t have much nice stuff, but I have this denim jacket.”

“I don’t really…”

“And I know your hair’s short, but I could braid it,” Tara says. “And I wanna--”

“If you’re going to embarrass me,” Raven begins. Tara winces.

“I don’t want to embarrass you,” she says. “I just think you’d look cute in my jacket.”

  
Raven’s cheeks are tinted pink. “If you’re going to embarrass me, at least let me embarrass you too. I have a dress.”

\--

“You know, you could probably stand looking at me,” Tara says.

“I’m just here to return your shoes,” Raven says, still not making eye contact. “You took them off under my table.”

“Oh,” Tara says, disappointed. “I do that without thinking sometimes.”

“Sometimes I curse people when I’m mad, by accident,” Raven says, rifling through her backpack and coming out with a pair of muddy red sneakers.

“I mean, we’re not little kids. You don’t have to watch your language,” Tara answers, taking them. “I’ll try not to take my shoes off in front of you anymore. It’s weird.”

Raven opens her mouth as if to say something, then apparently changes her mind. She shuffles off awkwardly, still clutching her backpack to her chest.

\--

“I’m glad I met you,” Raven says out of the blue one day. It’s after school and they’re walking home together. Tara’s apartment is a couple of blocks from Raven’s house, so it’s no trouble. She’s not sure when it was that they started doing this, but she likes it.

  
“Uh… thanks,” Tara says, a little put-off by the sudden earnestness.

“There are a lot of dark things in my life, but you’re bright,” Raven says.

Somehow, for no reason, their hands lock together.

\--

“Seeing my dad this weekend,” Tara says. She blows out a cloud of smoke. They’re sitting by the dumpster again. Tara brought her own fries this time, but the crows haven’t shown up.

“What’s he like?” Raven asks.

“Kind of a douchebag. Not his fault that he is, I guess. He and his wife raised both my brothers, and they’re okay, so…”

“What are your brothers like?”

“Serious,” Tara says, stretching out the word. “It’s all ‘your studies’ and ‘our duties’ with them. I love at least one of them, though. What’s your family like?”

“You’ve met my mother, and my father is a demon king.”

“Mine too!”

“You’re lying,” Raven says.

Tara sticks her tongue out. “You’re allowed to talk shit about your dad,” she says. “I mean, I guess my dad isn’t _demon king_ level bad, but it sounds cool.”

“No,” Raven says, shaking her head. “My father is literally a demon.”

“Whoa, sucks to be you.”

“It’s been a struggle,” Raven says. “It’s been easier since I sealed him from this dimension.”

“Spooky. Wanna ditch?” Tara says. “We can go McDonalds and bitch about our dads.”  
  
“After school,” Raven says, gently punching Tara’s arm. “You have history.”

“When did you memorize my schedule?”

“It’s a secret.”

\--

“Hey! Hey, Raven!” Tara calls with unabashed enthusiasm. Raven looks over her shoulder and away from Heathcliff, who’s talking animatedly.

“Yes?” Raven asks, spurning her friend.

“There’s a new horror movie out, it’s got demons in it!”

“I don’t usually watch--”

Heathcliff leans in close. Tara can hear him whisper “go to her” very loudly.

“When do you want to go see it?”

_\--_

_What I see is savage, primal. The animal is stricken, unable to move, as the waifish figure presses its face into his thick, hairy neck. The goat twitches. The figure, the hunter, continues feeding._

_…_

“This makes no sense,” Raven says. “A real demon doesn’t need to eat.”

  
“Shush,” Tara says.

_…_

_“The boy from before the flowers called me ‘Hircophagos,’” she says. “Disappointing boy,” she says quietly, in almost a sing-song voice._

_…_

“A real demon knows its own name,” Raven says. “It wouldn’t just let someone--”

“Quiet!”

…

_“Playing dangerous games,” I say._

_…_

“If she knows it’s dangerous, why doesn’t she find someone qualified?”

“Please, stop!”

_…_

_“Stupid! Haven’t you ever spent more than a few seconds thinking about goat skeletons?”_

_…_

“If she lives in a farming town, shouldn’t she already…?”

“I’m trying to watch!”

…

_Hircophagos reaches her arm towards Jonathan’s throat, her long claws extended. I’ve only ever seen claws like that on a bird: built for grasping and piercing at once, not meant to be walked on._

_…_

“I’ve never seen one that--”

  
“Shut up, you goth bastard.”

\--

Tara realizes why people don’t take Raven to the movies.

\--

“Well, I guess she should know…” Kitten turns and looks over her shoulder. “Hey, Tara, is that dirt or shit on your face?”

Tara is too slow to think of an immediate comeback, so she says, “It’s probably-- it's dirt.”

Kitten and her friend giggle into their hands. “Someone probably should have wiped you off before letting you in.”

“You-- uh, your dad got arrested!” Tara says, slamming her locker shut.

“At least my mom isn’t a side chick.”

“Okay, now I’m gonna have to kick your ass and I really don’t want to do that, but…” Tara’s rolling up her sleeves when Raven silently swoops in.

“Is there a problem here?” she asks, stepping between Tara and the two other girls.

“It’s Casper the Friendly Ghost,” Kitten says.

“I was handling it,” Tara protests.

“We weren’t trying to offend her, we were just worried about her,” Kitten says. “I mean, she’s sick, right? She looks like hell.”

Raven grits her teeth, and somehow, a pool of black forms around her feet. It creeps forward until it’s beneath Kitten, who shrieks and jumps back as it begins to seep into her white ballet flats. It softly dissipates before Tara can say a word about it.

“Let’s go,” Raven says, grabbing Tara’s wrist and walking her off.

“That was super weird,” Tara whispers as they pass a cluster of chatty boys. “What was that?”

“That was my demonic energy getting the best of me,” Raven says calmly, still not letting go of Tara’s wrist. “I was upset. I’m sorry.”

“Cool. Do you think someone spilled something?” Tara asks. “What does that? Pepsi doesn’t do that.”

Raven just slides her hand down to grip Tara’s.

\--

She doesn’t figure it out for five years.

When two and two finally come together and she notices the extra row of teeth, Tara asks, “Why didn’t you just tell me before? I wouldn’t have been mad!”


End file.
